The Corpse Bride of Frankenweenie
by Grandpas Girl Kim326
Summary: A parody of a previous Tim Burton film, Victor and Elsa are getting ready to be married; having been in love since age 10, and having discovered they were in love by middle school. Even so, Victor, still the more awkward of the young couple, gets distracted by the thought of marrying Elsa at their rehearsal. When practicing his vows, Victor Frankenstein makes a grave mistake.
1. Prologue

Before anyone asks, this is no crossover! It's a parody of "Corpse Bride" with the characters of another Tim Burton film called "Frankenweenie", except several years older than in the real "Frankenweenie" movie. In this story, Persephone had passed on a year before the start. Victor decided to finally let Sparky go so that his dog could be with the girl dog he loved. Even after Victor let Sparky go to be with the recently deceased Persephone, he could still find friendship in other people.

This is a story from when Victor is of marital age. He and Elsa, Persephone's owner who had been the love of Victor's life since age 10, are getting ready to be married. Although, Victor doesn't do too well at their wedding rehearsal and gets cold feet when he fails at his wedding vows. Victor tries to practice his wedding vows one final time in a park not too far out of New Holland, not realizing said park was abandoned because of its own far-too-short distance from a cemetery practically next door. Victor's attempt at practicing his vows take a turn for the worse when he accidently makes his vows to a corpse girl in a wedding dress.

What will happen after that? My advice, read to find out.


	2. Van Helsing and Frankenstein Wedding

Victor Frankenstein was finally getting married to Elsa Van Helsing, an incredibly beautiful, yet somber and somewhat awkward goth woman who had been the love of his life since the two of them were in grade school. He couldn't believe that he was finally getting what he wanted the most since finally having to let his beloved pet dog, Sparky, go once Elsa's own dog, Persephone, had died, herself. Victor didn't originally want to give Sparky up, but he also didn't want to get in the way of his dog's love towards the girl dog which belonged to the woman who was now his own fiancée. So, Victor made his decision and let the two dogs be together forever in death.

Now, it was Victor's turn to be with the one he loved forever. Elsa had become even more beautiful in adulthood than she already was as a grade school student. The two of them had secretly been in love since that time, but it was not until middle school that they finally discovered one's affections for the other. Victor Frankenstein and Elsa Van Helsing were finally permitted to date one another when Persephone had died and the undead Sparky was at last put to rest.

Victor and his parents were on their way to meet with Elsa and her parents on the other side of New Holland. While Edward and Susan Frankenstein were thrilled to have Victor finally able to move on from Sparky's final end, Jesse and Lorna Van Helsing were incredibly concerned about marrying Elsa to a boy like Victor, who once raised the dead.

When they had arrived at the Van Helsing residence, Victor was quite nervous about the wedding rehearsal. The in-laws were introduced to one another. "Edward Frankenstein, from across town," Victor's father introduced himself. "My wife, Susan Frankenstein, and I believe you two already know our son, Victor." Jesse and Lorna Van Helsing were quite curious about their new son-in-law to be. "Jesse Van Helsing," Elsa's father said, greeting Victor with an incredibly strong and hard handshake; thereby signifying how unimpressed he was with how scrawny and awkwardly skinny Victor was even nowadays. "Lorna Van Helsing," Elsa's mother greeted with a somewhat softer handshake on Victor's hand than her husband. "Please, do forgive Mr. Van Helsing. He's usually very sociable," Lorna told the Frankensteins. "Smile, dear," She then told Jesse. Jesse Van Helsing wore a forced smile on his face. "Hello," he said to Victor. "Elsa will be down soon enough, I'm sure."

They journeyed to the living room. Victor noticed a violin case in the room; he didn't know Elsa could play, but so could he. Not perfectly, but he could play the violin, nonetheless. Victor decided to try out the violin in the case. He turned out to be pretty good at it. Victor played the 'Claire de Lune' on the violin, and it came rather nice, with a few wrong notes here and there.

Meanwhile in her own room, Elsa was taken to the sound of the violin, despite what few wrong notes were actually played on it. She came out of her room, wondering where this slightly messy violin music was coming from. Elsa came out to the family room and saw that it was the violin being played by her own fiancé, Victor Frankenstein. As soon as he saw that she was in the room, however, Victor became embarrassed by his own playing of the violin and desperately tried to put it back in its case, albeit very awkwardly.

He didn't mean to show off for a pretty girl, that of which Elsa Van Helsing very much was. Only she had grown more beautiful since their days in grade school. "I'm sorry," Victor apologized for playing the violin without permission. "That was nice," Elsa told Victor. "I'm sorry, Elsa," Victor apologized again, calling his own fiancée by name, then blushed since it was improper. "I mean, Miss Van Helsing," Victor said, correcting his mistake, but still blushing at said mistake. "You know, maybe since we've already been friends since elementary school and considering our circumstances," Elsa began. "you can just call me Elsa, like you normally would," she finished. "Yeah, of course, Elsa," Victor said, lovestruck by the girl he had a crush on in grade school who had now turned into his fiancée.

He snapped out of his trance after a few seconds. "Elsa, tomorrow we're getting m-m-m_" Victor just couldn't seem to spit it out. "Married?" Elsa said for her fiancé. "Yeah, yeah, m-married," Victor finally said, nervously playing with the tie he had around his neck. "I've had dreams of my wedding day since I was 5," Elsa told Victor. "I've always wanted to be married to someone I could be in love with," Elsa told Victor. "Someone I could simply spend the rest of my life with," Elsa told Victor further, not noticing the look on his face which said "I'm in love" very plainly. "But I'm sure a guy like you would find it as such a stupid sentiment," Elsa said, finally looking Victor's way.

Victor was not paying that much attention to what his own fiancée said because he was much too lost in Elsa's matured beauty. "Yeah, stupid," Victor answered Elsa before he could realize what her statement even was. "I mean, NO!" Victor finally caught up with what Elsa's sentiment was. "No, Elsa," Victor rescued his response. "Not at all," Victor agreed with her; but in doing so he failed to realize he was attempting to lean against nothing in an effort to at least flirt with Elsa.

Victor tumbled down and crashed into the violin case he had just put back. "Oh no," Victor voiced his concerns once he realized what he had done, in front of Elsa no less. "I'm sorry, Elsa," Victor apologized once more. Elsa, however, was an understanding and sympathetic young woman. She knew that Victor didn't mean it. "It's OK, Victor," she told him as Victor gulped silently. Then, he smiled as the two of them locked eyes.

Elsa was readily leaning into Victor for a kiss. Victor was ready to respond back as they prepared to finalize their love just before even the rehearsal with a kiss, when Mrs. Lorna Van Helsing came into the room to observe the two of them. "What absurdity is this, you two?" Elsa's mother questioned. "You two shouldn't be alone together, or kissing before even the rehearsal. Here it is, seven to 5, you're kissing instead of being at the rehearsal. Minister Harker is waiting, you two. Chop chop," Lorna Van Helsing finished.


	3. A Wedding (Rehearsal) for Disaster

Three whole hours had passed by before Minister Harker was able to get the young couple to perform the marriage rehearsal, and even then it wasn't done right. "Mr. Frankenstein, from the beginning," Minister Harker tried to lead Victor in his vows once more. "Again! With this hand, I will lift your sorrows. Your cup will never empty; for I will be your wine. With this candle, I will be your light in the dark. With this ring, I ask you to be mine," the reverend finished his example of Victor's vows. "Let's try it, again," he requested Victor.

"Yes," Victor told the minister. "Yes, sir. With this candle," Victor started his vows once again, trying to light the candle in his hand. But, the candle didn't catch the wick from the candle on the table. "This candle," Victor tried to catch the wick with his own candle once again. "This candle," he tried again, but his candle just refused to light.

Even the rehearsal of the Frankenstein/Van Helsing Wedding wasn't going the way anyone expected it to go. Reverend Harker suddenly cleared his throat, and Victor realized he finally caught the wick in his own candle. "With this candle," he was finally able to start his vow with the candle. He breathed out a sigh of relief. Unfortunately for him though, it was strong enough to completely blow out his own candle wick. "Continue!" Minister Harker yelled at poor Victor, who was trying his hardest.

Then, the Van Helsing's front door bell rang. "I'll get the door, dear," Jesse Van Helsing told his wife, Lorna. He came back to the room earlier than expected, though, with a guest. "His name is Axel Reinfield, and he claims to be a Lord," Jesse informed his wife. "Is he from your side of the family, Lorna?" Elsa's father asked her mother. "I can't recall any Axel Reinfield in my family," Lorna told her husband in uncertainty. "You remember that my maiden name was Stoker," Lorna said.

The man who was confirmed to be the supposed Lord Axel Reinfield entered the room. "Don't mind me. I will simply help myself to any chair in the room," Axel told them, getting a chair for himself. "Please forgive my interruption. I have no mind for dates," Axel told everyone. "Looks like I'm a day early for the ceremony's finalization." He took his chair next to Jesse Van Helsing.

Both Jesse and Lorna were regretful of Axel Reinfield having to pull his own weight and get his own chair. "Please forgive you having to get your own chair, Lord Reinfield," Lorna apologized to Axel, having bought the title of "Lord" which he presented. "It was no trouble at all, Mrs. Van Helsing," Axel told Lorna, shaking hers and Jesse Van Helsing's hands in response to their apology. "You have a very strong grip, m'lord," Jesse noticed as Axel shook his own. "And, that is coming from me." Lord Reinfield's grip became what drew Jesse Van Helsing to him.

Victor, Elsa, and Reverend Harker noticed this. Victor was scared for the sake of his future with the love of his life. Elsa was disgusted by the fact that her own parents were actually buying 'Lord' Reinfield's supposed title. Minister Harker just wanted to get the rehearsal ceremony over with. "Do carry on, please," Axel told them, catering only to the reverend's wishes. "Let's try it, again; why don't we, Mister Frankenstein?" Harker asked impatiently.

Although he was starting to feel the pre-wedding jitters at the time, Victor was more than happy to continue to attempt his vows. "Yes. Yes, minister," Victor replied to Harker's wishes, Elsa lit his candle for him. "Certainly, sir," Victor said, holding his left hand. "Right!" Harker yelled at Victor, again; only now he yelled a whispery voice. "Right," Victor responded. "Oh, right!" Victor screamed, suddenly realizing he was holding up the wrong hand and switched the candle into his left hand, albeit clumsily and in a slight panic.

Victor was ready once again to practice his vows if he could just remember the words to those vows. "With this_ this_," Victor said, forgetting his own vows once again. "Hand!" the minister told him, getting antsy about this whole rehearsal ceremony. "With this hand, I ask_," Victor began talking Elsa's hand in his own.

As they stepped forward, however, Victor lost track of his own steps in Elsa's beauty and slammed into the table, having taken more steps than necessary. "Three steps, three!" Reverend Harker yelled at Victor's awkwardness yet again. "Did you never learn to count, Mister Frankenstein? Do you not **want** to wed Miss Van Helsing?" Harker asked him in annoyance. "No, no," Victor said defensively.

But, his panicked response to Harker's aggressive annoyance with him couldn't have been more poorly timed, considering the young woman he actually _**did**_ want to marry was right next to him. "You don't **wanna** marry me?" Elsa asked Victor, a bit hurt by his response to Pastor Harker's intimidation. "No," Victor tried to explain that his response, itself, was a mistake on his part. "I meant, I don't **not** want to marry you, Elsa." It counted as a double negative on his part, but Victor continued attempting his explanation, anyway. "That is that I want, more than anything in the world, to marry yo_ Ow!" Victor exclaimed when the minister hit him on the head with his reverend's cane. "Pay attention!" Harker yelled.

The minister was getting even more impatient with Victor. "Did you, at the very least, remember to bring the ring, Mister Frankenstein?" Harker asked Victor, only making the young man even more awkwardly uncomfortable. Elsa couldn't believe this judgmental, impatient man was the head minister of the Church of New Holland.

She and Victor were just thankful this rather embarrassing display of a wedding rehearsal was being viewed only by a small audience. "The ring?" Victor asked. Then, he suddenly remembered that Edward Frankenstein had given Grandma Frankenstein's old engagement ring to bring at least to the rehearsal. "Oh, yeah, the ring," Victor said, pulling his grandmother's ring out of his overcoat pocket.

Unfortunately for Victor, however, he was too nervous about the rehearsal going better than it had been to keep a steady grip on the ring. It fell right out of his grip when he felt a bit panicky about the way the wedding rehearsal was going. Everyone was appalled at this, with the exception of Victor's own bride-to-be, Elsa Van Helsing.

Of course, Reverend Harker was the most appalled of the whole crowd. "Dropping the ring. This boy doesn't want to marry this girl!" Harker commented on Victor's nervous behavior which looked to him like rebellion against his own wedding.

Meanwhile, Victor tried his best to recapture his grandmother's ring. He finally caught the ring, only problem was it fell under Mrs. Lorna Van Helsing's rehearsal attendance dress. "Got it!" Victor exclaimed, oblivious to his impression on the Van Helsings having gone even sourer than before. It finally went from bad to worse when Victor turned around and realized he had accidentally let his candle fall onto Lorna's dress, thereby setting his beloved's mother on fire.

Jesse Van Helsing decided he had enough of Victor Frankenstein's incompetence at the rehearsal of the young man's wedding to his own daughter. "Out of the way, you idiot!" Jesse demanded poor Victor, trying to put out the fire on his wife's dress. He tried to put it out by stepping on it repeatedly. The flame on Lorna's dress just continued to blaze, and Edward and Susan Frankenstein weren't much help with the situation, either. Harker just gave up on the rehearsal and closed his bible.

It wasn't until 'Lord' Axel Reinfield spilt the wine from the cup on Harker's reverend table on the fire that it was finally put out. When it was finally out, Axel just threw the cup over his back which landed perfectly back on the tray at the reverend table. Jesse and Lorna Van Helsing were suddenly more blown away than ever before by Axel. "Enough!" Harker yelled as soon as the ordeal was over thanks to Axel. "There can't be any wedding until this boy is better prepared." Harker then approached Victor in spiteful annoyance. "Young man, LEARN-YOUR-VOWS," Harker demanded Victor.

Jesse and Lorna Van Helsing looked at poor Victor with disdain that they almost gave their only daughter away to such a poorly prepared young man who they now deemed as a fool. Edward and Susan Frankenstein had their faces down, but Victor knew he had embarrassed them by not being ready to say his vows. Susan had her hand on her face.

Victor, seeing no other option, panicked and fled from the room and the Van Helsing residence. Elsa felt helpless to have only watched him run out on her, and she felt terrible for him failing to impress her parents. "Well, he's quite the catch, isn't he, Miss Van Helsing?" 'Lord' Axel Reinfield asked Elsa mockingly. Elsa paid little to no mind of Axel's mocking. She only looked Victor's way in sympathy.


	4. Wedding Vows Made to the Wrong Girl

Victor went over to the park to collect his thoughts. "Oh, my dear Elsa. She probably thinks I'm such an idiot," he said to himself. "How could this possibly get any worse?" Just then, all the other kids from Victor and Elsa's childhood; Edgar 'E' Gore, Bob, Toshiaki, Nassor, and 'Weird Girl' AKA Cynthia Nye; came along talking about the failed Frankenstein/Van Helsing wedding rehearsal. Victor begged fate not to let even one of them notice him, but it seemed as fate was his enemy today.

Edgar was the one who noticed Victor. "Victor?" 'E' asked as soon as he noticed their old classmate. "Victor Frankenstein? As in the Frankenstein/Van Helsing wedding rehearsal disaster?" 'E' questioned him further. Victor tried to walk away from this, but Bob, Toshiaki, and Nassor stopped him in his attempt to make tracks. "You've got some kind of nerve leaving my cousin at the alter during the rehearsal of your joint wedding," Bob told Victor. "You really should've prepared yourself better for even the rehearsal vows," Nassor told Victor in a threatening manner. "Now, now, don't-a be too harud on-a Victor," Toshiaki said in mock sympathy for Victor.

Victor could tell it was a mock sympathy, though. He just pifted at it. "I don't need this," Victor said. "I'm justu saying-u that-a Victor ras doing-u his-u rever best-u at-u the rehearsur," Toshiaki tried to justify his mock sympathy. "It ras puretty good considering-u," Toshiaki pressed. This got Victor to come back to them. "Considering what?" Victor asked Toshiaki. "Considering you destroyed the whole rehearsal," Cynthia said, finally having spoken up.

Victor shouldn't have gone to them and he knew it. "I feel bad enough about the rehearsal without all of you rubbing it in," Victor told them in defiance. "I'm leaving to go get my vows together. Good-bye!" he yelled at them, leaving them in the dust, albeit while they laughed at him. Victor just ignored them as he walked further into the park.

As he walked further into the park, Victor began to wonder if he could ever get his wedding vows right. "It shouldn't be as hard as it was at the rehearsal," Victor said to himself as soon as he got far enough from the teasing and taunting of the others. "It's just a few simple vows. With this hand," Victor began. "I will take your wine. No," Victor said as soon as he realized his error that time.

Victor started to loose track both of the time and where he was walking as he ventured further into the park. "With this hand," he tried again. "I will cup your_ oh, God. No," and he failed again. Victor wandered deeper and further into the park, not even realizing he had already started to make his way to the cemetery next door. "With this_ with this_ with this candle," he tried again. "I will_ I will_," he sighed in exasperation at the remembrance of how badly his candle vow went. "I will set your mother on fire," he accepted that it happened.

Victor slapped his own hand in his face at the memory of what he did to his beloved's mother. "It's no use. I just can't memorize my own wedding vows," he told himself. Victor took the ring back out of his overcoat pocket. A vision of a smiling Elsa Van Helsing appeared in Victor's mind as he looked at the ring, and Elsa's smiling face instantly brought his courage back to life.

Victor tried one more time, far more confident in himself than before. "With this hand," he began. "I will lift your sorrows," he continued practicing his vows, actually getting them right this time. "Your cup will never empty, for I will be your wine," Victor continued to be more confident with his wedding vows. "Well, if it isn't Mrs. Van Helsing," Victor said to a tree. "You look extremely nice today," Victor complimented the tree, pretending it was Lorna.

Then, Victor went to talk to a larger, bulkier tree. "What's that, Mr. Van Helsing?" he asked the bulky tree, pretending it was Jesse. "Call you 'dad'? Well, if you insist." Victor was definitely a lot more confident with his vows, having finally been given the chance to learn them. "With this candle," he began once again. "I will be your light in the dark. With this ring," he held up his grandmother's ring. "I ask you to be mine," he finally completed his vows, having done so on an uprooted tree root.

Placing the ring on the tree root turned into just another awful mistake, though; since the crows around the place started to caw out of control, that is. Then, the earth started to shake beneath Victor's knees. And the wind started to blow more than before. It turned out that the tree root wasn't actually a tree root, at all.

It was revealed to be a skeletal hand when it grabbed Victor out of the blue and started to pull him under the ground with it. The crows even started to scatter into the air as they took flight. Victor tried very hard to pull himself free of the hand's grip on him. He was successful in escape, but the entire arm the hand was attached to broke out of the ground with him. He gasped in fear at what was happening to him.

Victor flung the entire arm off of his own. Then, the ground began to shake some more around where the arm had come out after him. Before he knew it, an entire dead body started to come out of the ground, like a zombie would. He could tell it was a woman's body, and she wore a tattered wedding dress. By the time she had completely come out of the ground, she lifted her veil to reveal her face. "I do," she said, as though she thought Victor was proposing to **her**.

Victor got up from his position and started to flee from his dead stalker in terror. The dead girl's arm started to follow after him, as she picked it up and reattached it to her body. As Victor was running from the woman, he didn't notice that he was to run off a slope and slammed his head into a tombstone. The woman was still following him.

Victor started to flee away further when he ran straight into a tree; and very thick and wide tree, at that. He felt a bit woozy after running into the tree, but he could notice that the woman was still following him. He turned around, but ran into the tree once more. Victor finally decided to turn his head around, too, and go around the tree. He ran further away from her as he got his bearings.

Victor just continued to run from the zombie woman in the tattered wedding dress. He ran into a stream, but seeing her right behind him still made Victor Frankenstein determined to escape this zombie girl who was now convinced that the two of them seemed to be married.

He just continued to run from the living dead woman who was stalking him, but everything he was coming across while running from her just seemed to want to tie him to her. Even the trees and the birds seemed to be on the dead girl's side. The tree branches seemed to hang onto him and wouldn't let go, and the crows from earlier tried to stop Victor from escaping.

Victor Frankenstein thought he finally lost the undead woman when he finally made it back to the park's edge. He breathed a sigh of relief at the thought. But, when he turned around, she was there right behind him. "You may now kiss the bride," she said as she leaned forward to kiss Victor. Everything went black for Victor after that.


	5. The Story of the Corpse Bride, Valerie

Suddenly, Victor started to get back into focus when he heard voices. Albeit the voices were all moans and groans, but they were voices, nonetheless. Just at that moment, everything in Victor Frankenstein's line of vision became clear once, but it was all dead people. "A new arrival," a skeletal faced one said excitedly. "He must've fainted," Victor recognized the dead blue-skinned who chased after him. "Are you alright?" she asked Victor, clearly worried about him.

The woman's worries over him did little to make Victor more comfortable with her, however. "What_ what happened?" he asked the people. "Oh, my word!" the excited skeleton man from before exclaimed. "We got ourselves a breather!" he shouted. "Does he have a dead brother?" another blue-skinned woman said, whose youth had clearly gone past her long before she died. "He's still soft," a little skeleton boy came up and felt Victor's flesh, noticing that he seemed to still be alive.

Victor shuddered at these people; he was so frightened of this place. "A toast," a dead soldier began. "to the newlyweds." He toasted with his dead compatriot. The compatriot took the sword that was his friend's skeletal abdomen and took the drink from it. "Newlyweds?" Victor questioned. The woman told him the news of their marriage, which was more than a surprise to him. "I did?" Victor finally noticed his grandmother's ring on her skeletal finger. "I did," he said, regretting even practicing his wedding vows in the cemetery. "Wake up!" he yelled at himself, hitting his head on the table. "Wake up!" he repeated the action. "Wake up!" he repeated again.

Then, a disembodied head came forth from the crowd. "Hello," it said. "Coming through, coming through," the severed head said to the rest of the crowd. "My name is Peter, and I am your head waiter. I will be creating your wedding feast," Peter said. Suddenly, a worm-like creature came out from behind the dead woman's eye. "Wedding feast," it spoke in an accent similar to Edgar's. "I'm so happy." Victor was especially terrified by this. "Maggots," the woman told him, then she just laughed embarrassedly.

Victor just backed away from her once again. "Keep away," he said to them. "I have a_ a dwarf-sized soldier and I'm not afraid to use him. I want some questions, now!" Victor demanded from them all. "Answers, man," the soldier told him. "I think you mean 'answers'," the dwarf further corrected him. "Yeah, thanks. I need answers. What's going on here? Where the hey am I? Who are you?" he asked three questions in one.

"Well," the dead woman began. "that's kinda a long story." That was when a skeleton with just one eye came in to tell the story of Valerie Catheryn Alberline, the corpse bride who had brought Victor to the place they all called 'The Land of the Dead'. "A tale of romance, passion, and a murder most foul," the skeleton told Victor, ready to express his own opinions of the beautiful, but frighteningly dead Valerie Catheryn Alberline, who was known to all of them as the corpse bride.

As it turned out, Valerie was from a wealthy family in her life. She fell for a good-looking man who said all the right things to her, but her father wouldn't let her marry the stranger who had only just come into his daughter's life. Valerie, however, couldn't cope with her father's refusal at giving the young man his blessing to marry her. So, the two of them decided to run away together.

The stranger insisted she bring her family jewels so they could make it on their own, but she died when she took her family jewels to him. When Valerie died, however, she wasn't able to rest in peace. So, she waited around for her true love to free her. That was when Victor came around and placed his grandmother's ring on her finger.

Although on his end of the vows, he didn't even realize he was practicing his wedding vows to another girl, AKA Elsa Van Helsing, on her hand that Victor Frankenstein, himself thought was actually an uprooted tree root. So, from Victor's end, this was actually a misunderstanding. Victor knew he had to get out of there and get back to his real true love, Elsa.

They finished the story of Valerie Catheryn Alberline. Victor decided to make haste and try to get out of the 'Land of the Dead' and back to his beloved Elsa. He also imagined his own parents were getting worried about him, so he made a rug and beat it. However, Valerie happened to notice him leave, so she decided to go after him like before. Victor didn't care that he was now supposedly bound to Valerie, especially since it was a misunderstanding.


	6. Meanwhile, Back in New Holland

Back with Victor's parents and the Van Helsing family, Edward and Susan were getting very worried. Elsa was worried about Victor, herself, but her parents couldn't have cared less. "Victor sure has been gone a while, hasn't he, Mr. Frankenstein?" Elsa asked Edward, worried about the young man who was supposed to be the groom to her bride, the following day. "I'm worried about him," she stated to her fiancé's father. "I am, too," Edward said, trying to be reassuring to his future daughter-in-law.

Elsa's parents, however, were so much less than concerned about the young who they felt made such a horrid impression on them. "I say good riddance to that imbecile, my dear daughter Elsa," Lorna Van Helsing said apathetically. "I agree with your mother, Elsa," Jesse Van Helsing said in response to his wife's uncaring comment. "You can do **so **_**much**_ better than Victor Frankenstein, of all grooms-to-be." They were both displeased with the fact that Victor set Lorna's rehearsal attendance dress on fire.

Elsa was suddenly ashamed to call them her parents. "Are you two sure you should be saying that in front of his own parents?" Elsa questioned them. "Those kinds of comments, I expect from Uncle Bob, but you two?" Elsa interrogated her own parents about it. "I expect better from the two of you, even when you leave on business," she told them firmly.

She was right about what Jesse and Lorna were saying in front of the Frankensteins about their son, but her parents stayed firm on what they thought of Victor. "The boy lit your mother's dress on fire, Elsa, and you still defend him?" Jesse interrogated his daughter right back. Edward took a stand and stepped in to help Elsa come to his own son's defense. "I can assure you, Mr. Van Helsing, that it was an accident," Edward informed them. "Victor was probably having a hard time with his vows and Reverend Harker getting on his case about them," Susan helped come to their son's defense.

There was a knock at the door to the Van Helsings' living room. "Come in," Jesse said while Elsa smiled, hoping it was her beloved Victor. No such luck, though, as it turned out to be 'Lord' Axel Reinfield. "Well, if isn't 'Lord' Axel," Lorna said happily. "I hope you've enjoyed the wine from our cellar," Jesse asked of him. "Thanks for the sample of it," Axel told the Van Helsings. "You've been great hosts to me. I hope I'm not interrupting anything," he said in transparent apology.

Although Elsa and the Frankensteins were clearly unhappy it wasn't Victor behind the door, Jesse and Lorna were quite ecstatic to see him. "No need to apologize, 'Lord' Reinfield," Jesse told him. "You are welcome intrusion," Lorna followed up with her husband, both of them simply ignoring Victor's parents from that point on and merely oblivious to Elsa's reaction. "You're also kind, which is why it pains me to be the bearer of bad news," Axel stated to them all.

With a snap of his fingers, he brought forth the others from the park who Victor ran into after he ran off without a word. "Would any one of you like to tell them what you told me?" Axel asked all five of them. "I shall," Nassor said to him, stepping forth. "Victor Frankenstein was seen in the arms of a strange woman," he told them. "The dark-haired temptress and the Young Frankenstein then slipped away into the night," Nassor finished his information report of what all of them saw.

Edward and Susan Frankenstein were shocked that their only son just slipped away with some random woman; it wasn't like their Victor. Jesse and Lorna Van Helsing were furious that the boy they almost gave their only daughter away to was seen by these young ones, cheating on said daughter. Elsa, however, didn't buy a word of it. "I don't believe you, Nassor," the real love of Victor Frankenstein's life said. "I don't buy for a minute," she told him in defiant skepticism.

Elsa believed with all her heart that Victor was too in love with her to have cheated on her. "You never got along well with Victor, Nassor, so you would probably say anything to make him look bad," Elsa reasoned with herself, once again coming to Victor's defense. She was truly loyal to Victor; and because of her loyalty to their son, Edward and Susan could see Victor loving Elsa until the day he would die. It made them just as skeptical as Elsa, herself, that their only son would ever even _**dream**_ of cheating on the love of his life. "I'm with Elsa on this," Edward stated. "So am I," said Susan.

Bob, Toshiaki, and Edgar came forth to vouge for what Nassor was telling them; and so did Cynthia, who was nicknamed 'Weird Girl' in their school days. "You can berieve what-a-ever you want-a, Erusa," Toshiaki started off. "But, the fact is, Cousin Elsa, Mr. and Mrs. Frankenstein, that all five of us know what we say," Bob added to Nassor and Toshiaki's claim in agreement.

Elsa remained a skeptic to Victor's supposed cheating on her. Victor's parents also stood their ground, refusing to believe their son was a two-timer. "You think I'm buying what any one of you are selling?" Elsa questioned them. "I'm not buying one bit of it." Victor's parents continued to stay strong and solidly skeptical with Elsa when her own parents believed it. "Not even a bit of what you're telling sounds like my son," Edward said to them, both him and Susan Frankenstein helping Elsa stand up for Victor further.

Now, it was Edgar and Cynthia's turn to tell them more of what they saw. "Oh, I can assure all three of you that Victor was, indeed, with a strange woman none of us were familiar with," Edgar told them, furthering what Nassor and the rest claimed. "I know it's a shock for all three of you to hear," Cynthia told Victor's parents and Elsa. "But, we are all only telling all of you what our own eyes told all of us; and what our eyes told all of us was that Victor was necking another woman, behind your backs, no less. I was shocked by it, myself, Elsa. But, there was denying what we all saw at the edge of the old town park," Cynthia concluded.

Cynthia 'Weird Girl' Nye was also there to report on the weather, in addition. "Now, for the weather," she said. "According to Mrs. Whiskers, we are looking at clearer skies_," she began the weather report, but was interrupted by 'Lord' Axel Reinfield, who no longer had a need for them to be in the Van Helsing household. "Enough!" he yelled at Cynthia. "You all may leave this house, now!" he said to all five of them.

Elsa and the Frankenstein parents still remained skeptical, though. "I don't buy any of it, Susan," Edward told his wife. "Victor would never do such a thing," Susan said. "Or so you think," 'Lord' Axel Reinfield told the two of them in an attempt to make doubters out of Victor's own parents. "Call me if you need me, at all, in any way," Axel said to Jesse and Lorna Van Helsing.

Jesse and Lorna were now beside themselves with desperation of Elsa's wedding. "Oh, my word, Jesse," Lorna exclaimed in worry. "What should we do about this?" she asked her husband. "Don't fret, dear Lorna," Jesse told his wife, removing his pistol from the wall. "We'll find a way to set things right, again," he said, a glaring look in his eyes.

Edward and Susan grew worried for their only son's safety when they saw the man's gun. "Perhaps, they were imagining seeing Victor with any strange woman, if anything," Edward said defensively, trying desperately to prevent any possible death of his son while still trying to show respect to the Van Helsings. But, Susan was a different kind of desperate to protect her only son. "I swear, if you shoot my son, you won't live long enough even to see your birthday," she threatened Jesse.

Jesse wasn't intimidated by Susan, though. But, he wasn't planning to kill Victor, either. "I won't shoot your son," he reassured the woman who tried and failed to threaten him. "I'm only saying that we're now one groom short of our children's wedding," he clarified to the Frankensteins. "This scandalous affair of your son's is embarrassment not just for our two families, but the entire town of New Holland," Lorna told them further on the subject. "Please, give us a chance to look for Victor and get his side of the story," Edward begged of the Van Helsings.

The Van Helsings were a proud family; and that was their strongest virtue, but their sense of pride was also the Van Helsing family's worst sin. "Very well, you can look for your son, Mr. and Mrs. Frankenstein," Lorna told them. "We'll be back with Victor as soon as we can," Susan told them. "And, Elsa is still our own daughter in the meantime," Jesse said to the Frankensteins. "So, we'll look after her," he finished.

Jesse and Lorna gave Edward and Susan reassuring looks that they would wait for them to return with their son in tow. With that, Edward and Susan Frankenstein ran out of the room and out of the Van Helsing residence to look for their only son, Victor. What the Frankensteins didn't know was that the Van Helsings were only willing to give their daughter away to Victor and his parents because Elsa was only getting older and they were desperate to have their only daughter marry into some family. "We might need to consider an alternative groom," Jesse told his wife. "You're right, dear; and I suppose any man will suffice," Lorna agreed with her husband.

Elsa immediately took notice of this. "You can't just go back on your word to the Frankenstein family. Besides, I love Victor with all my heart," Elsa told her parents. "and I know for a fact that Victor loves me, too," she told them further on the subject. "Elsa, all we are saying is that you may want to consider a back-up groom-to-be," Jesse told his daughter, trying to get Elsa to see the situation their way. "Elsa dear, your pretty isn't going to last forever, you know," Lorna said to their daughter. "All we want is for you to get married before you're too old." Elsa pondered on this when Lorna held up her hand mirror in her daughter's face.

She decided to negotiate with her parents. "Either you two give Mr. and Mrs. Frankenstein until dawn to find Victor. Or, I run away from this home and look for him, myself, if I have to," Elsa told them reaching her decision in their negotiation. "And, don't agree to my terms unless you mean it," she added, prepared for any possible double cross from her own parents. Jesse and Lorna thought about it for a bit. Then, they were finally ready to agree to their daughter's terms. "Alright, our dear daughter. You've yourself a deal," Jesse told Elsa as he and Lorna shook their daughter's hand.


	7. Trial, Error, and Success in Escape

Back with Victor, the poor young man was still being slightly stalked by Valerie, the corpse bride who now thought the two of them were married. "Victor, dear, where are you?" Valerie asked out to him from wherever he was hiding from her. "If you ask me, your boyfriend is kinda antsy and jumpy," the maggot behind Valerie's eye told her. "He isn't my boyfriend," Valerie corrected her maggot that acted as her conscience. "He's my husband," Valerie showed Victor's grandmother's ring as proof of her relationship to him. "Victor?" she continued her search for who she automatically assumed was her husband.

Victor, in the meantime, was still terrified of everything and everyone in the 'Land of the Dead', Valerie and her maggot, especially. He continued to look for an escape route, any possible escape route back to New Holland in the 'Land of the Living', as it was known there in the 'Land of the Dead'. "I'll keep an eye out for him," the maggot told Valerie, popping her eye out of socket. "Victor, where have you gone?" Valerie asked out once more.

Victor decided to run further away from Valerie and continue to search for a way back home. Unfortunately for him, Valerie's maggot conscience spotted him as he tried to run away. "There he goes," her maggot told her. "He's getting away!" Valerie's maggot exclaimed to his dead-bodied mistress. She popped her eye back into her socket. "Victor!" Valerie exclaimed to her false husband, Victor, as she continued her chase after him. Victor ran from Valerie past the second hand store, which was literally teaming with replacement arms. They pointed her to his direction. "Thanks a bunch," Valerie said.

Victor continued to run away from Valerie Catheryn Alberline. He eventually found himself at a coffin motel. "Victor! Where are you, my love?" Valerie continued to chase after Victor, and she also continued to believe him to be her true love and her husband. He decided to hide in one of the coffins and disguise himself as a recently deceased, just hiding in plain sight.

Valerie passed right by him; but just when Victor thought his luck was finally turning around, along came a spider who knew Valerie. "Married, huh?" the spider asked him. "I'm a widow; a black widow 'widow', that is," told him as though it was meant to be taken as joke. But, instead she just frightened him more. Victor swatted her away. "So rude of him!" the spider exclaimed. So, in turn, she ratted Victor out to Valerie. "He went that way," her spider friend told her. "Victor!" Valerie just continued to call out to him.

Victor only continued to avoid Valerie and search for a way out. Victor eventually happened upon a man he hoped very much would be helpful to his predicament. "Please, sir, there's been misunderstanding," he told the blue-skinned gentleman. "I'm not dead," he tried to clarify. Unfortunately for Victor, however, his terrified shaking of this dead man only caused the man's head to fall right off of his living dead body. This scared poor Victor Frankenstein even more than before. The man continued his sweeping about as he started to sweep even his own head.

Victor then ran into another man who looked a lot like he was alive during the earliest days of New Holland, where there were bicycles with giant front wheels and a tiny back wheel. "Pardon me, sir," he said, as Victor tried to work his way around the gentleman. "Pardon me, sir," he said once. Victor just couldn't get around the gentleman.

So, the man did what he believed would be the next best thing: he spilt himself in half right down the middle. "Pardon me, sir," both of his sides said at once. Victor was more terrified of the 'Land of the Dead' than he was before, which was really saying something. He was scared enough to fully step out of this dead man's way. "Thank you very much, kind sir," the dead man thanked Victor with both of his sides.

But, it still did nothing to ease Victor's more than apparent fears of the place he currently seemed to be trapped in with none an exit route in sight. "Victor," Valerie continued to call after him. He just kept running until he finally came upon a brick wall. "Dead end," he said to himself. But, hearing Valerie's voice seemed to motivate Victor to try to climb the wall for the use of an escape route out of there.

But, Valerie was right there waiting for him. "You could've used the stairs, silly," she chuckled. She pulled him up to the top of the building with ease, but it didn't feel very good to Victor. "Ow!" he exclaimed as Valerie lifted him up from where he was. "Oh, isn't the view just lovely from up here?" Valerie said, surprisingly oblivious to Victor's rather panicked disposition towards her. "It takes my breathe away," she added to her compliment towards the view of the entire 'Land of the Dead' from upon the rooftop. "Well, it would if I had any to actually lose," she joked, completely unaware of her own insensitivities towards Victor, who was still alive and kicking it. "Isn't just romantic?" she asked Victor.

She finally calmed down enough to sit down, only she patted the seat for Victor to sit next to her. Victor complied to her wishes for once and sat down next to her. "Look, I'm so sorry about what happened to you all those years ago," Victor began. "and I'd like to help you, really I would, but I really need to go back home," he finished, but Valerie didn't seem to hear him out. "This is your home, now," she said, clearly not getting his point. "But, I don't even know your name," Victor reminded her of why he couldn't help her. "and I've also only just met you today," he spoke further on the subject.

Valerie's maggot conscience, however, did see Victor's point in why he couldn't marry her. "Well, isn't that a dandy way to start a marriage?" the maggot said sarcastically, as Valerie held onto her head trying to silence her own conscience. "Shut up!" she exclaimed to him in a whispery tone of voice. "It's Valerie," she told Victor. "My name is Valerie Catheryn Alberline," she then told him her full name. "But, you could call me 'Val', 'Kitty Cat', or just 'Smitten', if you want," Valerie offered Victor Frankenstein. "Um, no thanks, I think I'll stick with just Valerie," Victor said, having gone from terrified of the corpse bride to mildly freaked out by her.

There was also the issue that Victor was already in love with the woman on whom had a crush since he was still in grade school, Elsa Van Helsing. This was the number reason why he couldn't marry Valerie; in addition to having only just met her and not knowing her name until just now. "Oh, I almost forgot," Valerie said to Victor. "I brought you a wedding present," she told him, bringing up a box to place on his lap. "Oh, that's very thoughtful, but you didn't have get me anything," Victor told her. "Oh, you're giving me the present, anyway," he said, suddenly finding Valerie a little bit too crazy about him for the good of both of them.

Victor opened the present up regardless of how he felt about the gesture. His old dog, Sparky, came out of the gift box; missing several bits of his flesh and blood, however, thereby having some exposed skeletal structure. There was also the issue of Victor having already chosen to let Sparky go once Elsa's own dog, Persephone, had died. "Wow, you really shouldn't have," Victor said in response to his gift. "Sparky, it's good to see you again, good boy," Victor said to his old dog. "Who's my good boy? That's right, Sparky's my good boy," Victor appreciated the gift, but he was worried about how Sparky possibly felt about this little reunion between the two of them.

Although Sparky was glad to see Victor, he was sad about having been taken away from his beloved poodle girlfriend, Persephone to be Victor's supposed wedding present from this strange girl by the name of Valerie Catheryn Alberline. "Um, where is my dog's girlfriend, Persephone?" Victor asked Valerie, saying what was clearly on Sparky's own mind.

Victor's question suddenly hit Valerie as to why Sparky put up a struggle even against a reunion with his owner. "Oh, dear, that would explain why he put up such a struggle against even something like this," Valerie groaned at this knowledge. She couldn't believe that in her own intentions of showing what Victor meant to her, Valerie tore two doggy lovers away from one another. "I'm so sorry I took you from your own girlfriend, dear Sparky," Valerie apologized to Victor's dog. Sparky was openly upset with her because of this. "But, still, he's so cute, I could die. Well, come back to life, and die again, that is," Valerie defended herself.

Sparky seemed to like Valerie's compliments. "You should've seen him with all of his flesh and blood intact, and without the stitches, patchwork, and bolts I attached to him when I brought him back to life," Victor finally joked with Valerie. She laughed in response to his humor. "Even after I brought him back from the dead, mother did everything she could think of to cater to his wishes," Victor stated, remembering those days from before he finally let Sparky go. "Father took a bit more time for Sparky to win over in those days, but he eventually let Sparky stay in my life. It wasn't until his girlfriend died that I was finally able to let Sparky go," he finished his sentiment.

Valerie was blown away by Victor's stories of childhood with Sparky and his parents. "Do you think I could've won your father over in one try?" she asked him. "You would have to meet him in order to find out," Victor told Valerie, which gave him a new idea for escaping the 'Land of the Dead' with Sparky's and Valerie's help; only condition with Valerie would be that she wouldn't know she'd be helping Victor escape back to Elsa. "Actually, now that you mention it," Victor began. "I think you probably should," he finished.

Sparky was surprised by this statement from his owner. What in the world was Victor thinking? Trying to introduce his living dead somewhat-of-a-stalker to his loving, alive parents? It was one thing to raise Sparky from the dead that one time covertly and that other time with the whole town of New Holland helping out. It was another to try to introduce them to an actual corpse and tell them he was married to said corpse. Sparky barked at Victor for the first time in the young man's life in attempt to stop him by acting as his common sense.

What Sparky didn't realize until Victor shushed at his dog then winked at the dead dog was that Victor was actually trying use this as an excuse to go back to the 'Land of the Living' to try to reconnect with Persephone's owner, the lovely Elsa Van Helsing. Sparky caught to Victor's plan once the boy he knew who now a young man winked at him; because in addition to being a cute dog, Sparky was also incredibly intelligent in his life, being a bull terrier. Sparky played along with Victor's plan to see Persephone's owner again and helped his owner trick Valerie into guiding him out of the 'Land of the Dead'.

Victor pressed his trickery further with assistance from Sparky, glad to finally have someone and/ or something in the 'Land of the Dead' on his side instead of Valerie's. "In fact, seeing as how we're m-married," Victor practically choked on the word 'married'. "you should meet them for yourself," he finished. Sparky helped his owner further in his endeavor to escape back to his beloved Persephone's owner, clearly the scientific link between the two couples, dogs and masters alike, acting almost as though they'd never been severed.

Valerie wasn't onto Victor's plan, at all. She actually **did** believe that he wanted to introduce her to his parents. "You really mean it?" she asked. "Definitely," Victor told her. "We should go and see them right now," Victor said. "Of course, why not? What a fantastic idea," Valerie stated. "Where are they buried?" she asked him excitedly, unaware once again of exactly how insensitive she was being to Victor. "Well, they're not from around here," Victor told her. "Well, where are they?" Valerie inquired. "Well, they're-they're up there," he told her pointing upward to the surface.

Valerie realized what Victor meant. "Oh, they're still alive!" she exclaimed in wonder. "I'm afraid they are," Victor told her. "Well, this is a fine predicament we're in," Valerie said. Suddenly, Sparky took that as his cue to help with Victor's plan, so he started barking. "What's that, Sparky?" Valerie asked. "Oh, no, we couldn't possibly." But, Sparky continued to bark his suggestion to them. "Well, I suppose when you put it like that," she mused.

Victor was suddenly interested in Valerie's theory on the matter. "What? What is it?" he asked her, desperate to find it out. "Elder Reinard," Valerie stated, revealing that she knew a way for Victor to make it back to the 'Land of the Living'. "Who is Elder Reinard?" Victor asked. "He is the ruler of the 'Land of the Dead', silly," Valerie told Victor, acting as though it was the most obvious news. "You sure do ask a lot of obvious question for a new arrival and my husband," she told him on the way to the elder's tomb house, still unaware that Victor wasn't really dead.

They soon arrived at the famous Elder Reinard's tower. "Elder Reinard, are you there?" Valerie asked out to the top room of his tower. Books were everywhere as far as the eye could see in this Elder Reinard's tower. "Hello?" Valerie called out again. "Anyone home?" she asked once again. While Valerie was curious as to whether or not Elder Reinard was home, Victor was still terrified. How old exactly was this Reinard if he was known as the 'Land of the Dead's' elder and its ruler? At what age was he when he died?

Victor eventually ran into a lamp in his lack of attention due to slight terror, and suddenly an incredibly old skeleton was revealed to them catching the lamp. He coughed a bit due to the dust from having to catch his own lamp. "There you are, Elder Reinard," Valerie said, revealing who the old skeleton was. He put a pair of glasses in front of his eyes. "Oh, my dear Valerie," Elder Reinard began as soon as his glasses were in place. "There **you** are," he finished.

Valerie then introduced Victor to the elderly ruler of the 'Land of the Dead'. "I've brought my husband, as well, sir," she informed him. "His name is Victor Frankenstein," she finished off. "Husband?" Elder Reinard asked, and Victor realized the old skeleton man had gone blind in his own life. "Pleasure to meet you, sir," he said in a firm, loud voice so Elder Reinard could hear him. "We need to go upstairs to the 'Land of the Living'," Valerie informed the elder. "'Land of the Living'?" Elder Reinard pondered this request.

Elder Reinard took some steps down from where he was standing. "Why go up there when people are dying to get down here, Corpse Bride Valerie?" the elder inquired about their request. "Please, sir, I beg of you," Victor pleaded for it. "It would mean so much to m_" Victor almost ruined his plan of escaping back to Elsa, but caught himself before he could slip up. "_us," he finished, correcting himself by including Valerie. "I don't know," Elder Reinard began. "It's just not natural," he finished. "Please, Elder Reinard," Valerie begged him, still believing his parents were the only reason Victor wanted to go back up there. "There must be something you can do," she pleaded further.

Elder Reinard pondered this more. "Let me see what I can do," he told them. "Where did I put that book?" the elder inquired to himself. He searched around his entire library. He first looked in a cupboard which hid a book shelf, but it didn't seem to be there. He closed it back up, opened a drawer, but only crows came out of it. Victor was fear-stricken by this. "I know I left it here somewhere," Elder Reinard said, throwing some more books aside as he searched. Sparky was in the line of those books being tossed aside by the elder, so he rushed out of the way as soon as he could.

Finally, after much trial and error in his search, Elder Reinard found the very book he was trying to find. "Aw, here's the one I'm looking for," he said, silently proud of his success. The book was a bit dusty, though; so he blew on it to clear the dust. Then, he placed the book on his desk, along with a few bottles of potions. He looked through the book for the certain spell he needed to cast to send them to the 'Land of the Living'. "I have the right spell," he told them.

Valerie breathed a sigh of both relief and elation. Victor breathed a sigh of only relief. "A Bulgarian haunting spell is just what you two lovebirds need," Elder Reinard informed them. "So glad you thought of this," Valerie told Victor, elated at the thought that she was going to get to meet her husband's parents. "Me, too," Victor said in response, relieved that he was going to reunite with his beloved Elsa Van Helsing more than anything, actually.

Elder Reinard prepared the potion to perform the spell, bit by bit and drop by drop. He poured a liquid Victor had never seen into the cup. Then, he added a dash of some unfamiliar dust. Finally, he plucked a feather from the crow which was perched on his desk. The potion started to boil in the cup.

But, instead of giving it to them in any way, shape, or form, Elder Reinard just drank it for himself. Turned out the potion wasn't a potion, at all. It was a fizzy the elder was preparing for himself to quench his living dead thirst. "Now then, where were we?" Elder Reinard asked them, finally remembering the matter at hand. "The Bulgarian haunting spell," Valerie reminded him. "Aw, that's right," Reinard said. He started by making his crow lay an egg. "There we go," he said. "Just remember, when you wanna come back safe, hopscotch," Reinard told them. "Hopscotch?" Valerie chuckled. "That's all you need," the elder said. Then he cracked the egg open, and a powdery dust came forth upon them.

They suddenly found themselves in the 'Land of the Living' back in the cemetery where Victor first met Valerie. As soon as she saw the night sky, Valerie gasped in awestruck delight. "I was underground for so long," she began. "I actually forgot how beautiful moonlight can really be," she finished, looking up at the moon. As a butterfly flew by, Valerie felt free to dance around and be merry.

Victor suddenly started to find Valerie intriguing, but he still terrified of her and still very much in love with his childhood crush, Elsa. Valerie suddenly tripped and her leg fell off of her body. The maggot came out through her ear, this time. "Hey, Miss Graceful," he commented sarcastically. "I think you dropped something," her maggot finished, reminding her to be careful in the 'Land of the Living'.

Valerie just carried on with her dance; and if that wasn't bad enough in Victor's point of view, the corpse bride tried to encourage him to join her. Victor, however, still had his plan to get back to Elsa in mind; so he tried instead to calm Valerie down a bit enough to sit down. "Hold on a bit," Victor said, sitting her down. "I think I should prepare my parents for the big news," he continued. "I'll go on ahead. You can just wait here until I return with them," he finally finished, hoping Valerie would buy it.

Valerie bought what Victor was selling her, alright; to the point of trusting him completely. "Perfect!" she just exclaimed in response. Victor started to head back in the direction of New Holland. "I won't take long," Victor started, continuing to sell his trickery to Valerie. "Stay right there," he was still uncertain whether she believed him or not. "I'll be right back!" Victor exclaimed to her. "OK," Valerie replied to his words obediently as ever. "No peeking," he told her. Valerie just giggled at this. Then, Victor ran off towards New Holland like a freight train. Valerie was still unaware that Victor was not **really** hers to marry.


	8. An Interrupted Reunion with True Love

Victor ran all the way to the Van Helsing residence. He couldn't take this one-sided marriage to a zombie-like corpse, anymore. Valerie was nice, but Victor was still in love with Elsa from the bottom of his heart. Victor was about to knock on the door, but heard Elsa's less than happy parents on the other side; and they were talking about him, ending him, that was. "If I ever see the Frankenstein boy again, I'll throttle him with my bare hands. He will pay for cheating on our dear Elsa," Lorna Van Helsing shouted about Victor from the other side of the door.

Jesse tried to reason with his wife against the matter; of doing it herself instead of him, that is. "Never, dear, your hands are much too dainty to strangle Victor; and his neck is still too skinny even as an adult," Jesse reminded his wife of her small fingers. "I should be the one to throttle that awkward, little neck of his. I've the more muscular hands for the job," Jesse told Lorna.

Lorna was just much against Jesse doing it as he was about her doing it. "You can't do it, either, Jesse," Lorna told her husband. "Did you already forget what Susan Frankenstein said she'd do to you if **you** were to end Victor?" Lorna asked. "I remember, dear," Jesse began. "but what could that woman possibly do to me with hands as small as yours?" he asked his wife. Victor decided to search for another way to Elsa.

Meanwhile back with Valerie, her maggot conscience was trying to get her to see reason. "This is the voice of your conscience speaking to you," her maggot told her from inside her skull. "Listen to what I say. I have a bad feeling about Young Mister Frankenstein. You do know he's not_" he started to say, but he was interrupted when Valerie knocked him out of her own head.

Valerie was very stubborn in her belief in Victor. "Go chew on someone else's ear for a while, why don't you?" Valerie requested of her maggot, annoyed at the little worm-like thing. "Victor's gone to see his parents, and I trust him," Valerie told the maggot defiantly. "If I wasn't just now sitting in it, I'd say you lost your mind," the maggot said. "I'm sure there's a perfectly good reason why he's taking this long," Valerie defended Victor, though she started to grow doubtful due to how long he was taking. "Well then, why not go ask him?" her maggot suggested.

Valerie at first didn't know what to think about that suggestion; on one hand, she'd be disobeying Victor; on the other hand, she'd find out what he was up to that was keeping away from her. "Alright, I will go see what's keeping him," Valerie finally told her maggot conscience, deciding on the latter option. "After all, my dearest Valerie, he couldn't have gotten far on those cold feet," the maggot pointed out to the corpse bride.

Victor, in the meantime, was still looking for a way to Elsa that would help him escape the profane retribution of his beloved's angry parents. He found the window to her bedroom. But, Victor had already forgotten that Elsa and her parent own the only two-story house in the entire town of New Holland. It was like a mansion among common houses. Luckily for Victor, there vines he could climb to Elsa's room.

He came up to her on her balcony, just like in the Shakespearean story about the original star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet. But, he fell down onto the balcony as soon as he succeeded at his climb. He yelled as he fell onto the balcony, but Victor got back up soon enough to walk up to Elsa's balcony door and knocked on it. She heard him and was very happy to see him. Elsa opened her door and let Victor in.

As soon as he had made it into Elsa's room, Victor breathed a sigh of relief to see his first and only love since his grade school days. "Elsa," Victor said her name as soon as he took in the sight of the girl he loved the most in the world. "Victor, I'm so glad to see you," Elsa told him in equal elation. "I thought I'd never see you again," Victor said back to her. "Come over and I'll get you a blanket," Elsa said. "You're as cold as death," she stated, worried about him.

When Elsa came back with the blanket, she had a lot of questions for her true love. "Where have you been, Victor? What happened to your coat?" she asked two questions at once. Victor decided it was now or never to tell Elsa how he felt about her all these years since she was 10 and he was 11. "Ah, man," Victor said, breaking up a nervous sweat. "Elsa, look," he started. "This morning, I was very nervous about marrying you, especially considering you and I were neighbors whenever you stay with your uncle while your parents were away on business," Victor started to the worries about being married to Elsa from that morning.

Then, Victor Frankenstein began to get into how he felt about Elsa Van Helsing ever since they were in grade school. "But then, after seeing you for the first time since our graduation from high school, I decided I should marry you and be with you all the time; because I'm so in love with you, there are no words to express my feelings for you," Victor finally said to Elsa, expressing the feelings he had even after all these years.

Victor continued on with how Elsa made him feel. "I'm sorry about the rehearsal," he began once again. "I was just incredibly anxious to get it done and over with, so that our actual wedding could come sooner," Victor finally finished telling Elsa his thoughts about the wedding. "Victor, I feel the same way," Elsa told him. "I always did," she smiled a teasingly affectionate smile for the first time in her life since he'd met her. Elsa **was** happier with Victor as much a part of her life as he was now. He couldn't believe this beautiful, cheerful young woman was ever as somber as she was in her childhood.

The two of them were finally ready to seal their love with a kiss on the lips. Victor Frankenstein couldn't believe he was getting to kiss Elsa Van Helsing, the girl of his dreams since childhood. However, their kiss was suddenly interrupted when Victor looked out onto Elsa's balcony and saw Valerie climbing onto it, albeit better and more quietly than he did. He had actually forgotten that he had brought Valerie back with him to the 'Land of the Living'.

Elsa heard Victor's gasp when he saw Valerie. She tried to look out onto her balcony, but he stopped her by holding onto her face. "Elsa, I have to tell you," Victor started. "I've recently had a surprise marriage sprung onto me because a small misunderstanding. Just know that it's an unexpected marriage and that I still love you with all my heart," Victor told Elsa, trying his best to explain Valerie.

Valerie came into the room as swiftly as the wind she brought in with her, totally unaware of what she had just interrupted between Victor and Elsa. "Victor, darling," Valerie began. "I hope I'm not intruding on anything, but I just wanted to meet your_" she spoke further on the subject, until she noticed the other woman in the room. Elsa, herself, noticed Valerie and how dead she looked; blue skin, torn flesh, exposed bones, the works. "Darling, who's this?" Valerie asked. "Who is she?" Elsa asked, too. "I'm his wife," Valerie said before Victor could stop her.

Elsa gasped, both in terror and in slight heartbreak. "Victor?" Elsa asked him. "Elsa, wait, you don't understand. It's not like that," Victor told his real beloved. "She's dead, look," he said to Elsa, waving Valerie's bony arm in place in attempt to prove his point. Valerie was angered by how little she meant to Victor compared to this other woman. "Hopscotch!" she exclaimed in a whispery voice, forcibly taking Victor back down to the 'Land of the Dead' with her. "Wait, no!" Victor exclaimed at once again being dragged down against his will. "ELSA!" he shouted back to his real beloved as he was dragged back down. "VICTOR!" Elsa shouted his name back from her balcony.

Then, Elsa Van Helsing bent down and started to cry. She wasn't crying because her true love had proposed to someone else. She believed him when he said it was a misunderstanding. Elsa cried on her balcony at the thought of never seeing Victor again.


	9. Back in the 'Land of the Dead'

Once they were back in the 'Land of the Dead', Valerie was at first mad when they had been transported back to Elder Reinard's tower. But then, her expression towards Victor turned to one of heartbreak. "You lied to me. You took advantage of my trust," Valerie started to harp on Victor. "Just to get back to that other woman, no less," Valerie finished. "Don't you get it?" Victor began with a question that was more of statement than a question. "You're the other woman," Victor concluded on the subject.

Valerie was not going to take this lying down. "No, you're married to me," she argued, not wanting to hear Victor's explanation. "She's the other woman," she said further, still not grasping the concept that Victor might've proposed to her by mistake. "She's got a point," Elder Reinard told Victor. Valerie started to cry, weep, and sob like a child; proving even more to Victor that she came from a rich household in life and was more than a bit spoilt.

Valerie continued to display the same spoilt behavior in death than she more than likely displayed in life. "And, here I thought this was going so well," she sobbed further, her eye popping out of its socket as she did. It rolled until it reached Victor's foot. "Look!" he tried to explain to Valerie. "I'm sorry, but this just can't work, at all." Victor gave Valerie her eye back. "Why not?" Valerie whined. She tried her hardest to think about why it couldn't work between them, and she deduced her eye as the answer. "It's because you hate my eye, isn't it?" Valerie concluded.

Unfortunately for Valerie, her deduction was only a small piece of the reason why her marriage to Victor couldn't work. "No!" Victor exclaimed defensively. "Your eye is_" Victor hesitated to compliment a girl whose eye kept on popping out of her socket. "_lovely," he finally said to Valerie.

Still, Victor had to tell Valerie the whole reason why their marriage couldn't work out and fast. "Under different conditions between us," Victor began. "but we're just far too different," Victor finished his statement. "You're dead, and I'm not," he said to Valerie, explaining the biggest difference of all between the two of them. "You might've told me your husband, himself, was still alive, dear Valerie," Elder Reinard stated, as this was news to him. This revelation suddenly caused Reinard to have doubts about blessing this marriage.

Valerie, however, was still stuck in her own mind about Victor. "Well, you should've thought of that before you asked me to marry you," she continued to argue with Victor, stubbornly pursuing the fact that she wore his grandmother's ring on her finger. "Don't you understand?" Victor stated in question form, still trying to explain himself. "It was a mistake. I would never marry you," Victor said before he could catch up to his own words.

Valerie seemed even more heartbroken by this revelation from Victor. "Look, I'm sorry for saying that," he told her. "but what looked like proposing to you was me practicing my wedding vows to her," Victor said, finally revealing the truth. "I wanna be alone, right now," she told him and Elder Reinard, leaving the room and going down the stairs. "I now know you're not dead like she is," the elderly skeleton told Victor. "but you could've gone a little bit easier on Valerie." Even Sparky showed a face which expressed disappointment in his owner.

Back down further in the 'Land of the Dead', Valerie had gone down the stairs and tossed her veil aside into the dirt. She sat down on the coffin bench, picked up her old wedding bouquet, and started to take the flowers from it. "Roses for eternal love," Valerie said as she took a flower from her bouquet and dropped down on the floor. "Lilies for sweetness." She dropped another flower from her bouquet down to the floor. "Baby's breath." Valerie tossed her entire bouquet to the side, wanting nothing more to do with love of any kind.

Just then, a dead poodle came by with a top hairdo like the 'Bride of Frankenstein' appeared near Valerie. It was Persephone; only she was now a resident of the 'Land of the Dead' just like Sparky. Even having been her alive rival's dog in life, Persephone still felt like she had to console Valerie; even knowing her as Elsa's living dead rival. Valerie might have taken Sparky from Persephone for a time, but Persephone could tell that Valerie took Sparky to give to Victor. She came up to Valerie to try to console her, but it was to no avail. It didn't help Valerie to know that Persephone was Sparky's poodle girlfriend. Knowing that this living dead poodle was her living rival's old dog only strengthened Valerie's doubts that Victor was even meant to hers, and not Elsa's instead.

Just then, Valerie's maggot conscience and her spider friend came to her side in attempt to console her. "Why so blue, my dear Valerie?" the spider asked. "No pun intended, darling," the spider told her at her realization that Valerie was normally blue. "Maybe Victor's right. Maybe we are too different," she told her spider friend. "Maybe he should have his head examined," her maggot conscience said from behind her ear. Valerie pulled him out of her head. "I could do it," the maggot offered her. "Or perhaps, he _**does**_ belong with her," Valerie stated, starting to believe Elsa was a good reason for Victor to have run off.

Valerie also began to comment on the fact that Elsa was alive, too. "Little Miss Living, with her pretty face and beating heart," Valerie described Elsa's beating heart in bitterness. "Oh, those girls are a dime of dozen," her spider told her reassuringly. "You've so much more. You've got_ you've got_" her spider friend started but hesitated and stuttered until she finally came up with a quality about Valerie which she believed could actually make her feel a bit better about herself. "A delightful personality," the spider told her.

Valerie didn't buy much of it, though. For the next three minutes, the spider and the maggot sang a little song in an attempt to make their lovely corpse bride feel better about being Victor's last possible choice as a bride simply for being dead as a doornail. But every time they tried to console Valerie, she reminded herself that they had yet to even meet Elsa. She also stated that Elsa was also alive enough for Victor every time her maggot and the spider tried to console her. Valerie's heart only broke and ached even more with the knowledge that Victor was still in love with Elsa.


End file.
